Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) is stepping up its fight against plastic waste by pledging to end the use of shrink-wrapped plastic across all can multipacks it sells in the UK and the rest of Western Europe.
Europe’s largest independent Coca-Cola bottler will replace plastic shrink wrap across its four, six and eight-packs of cans for all its brands, including Coca-Cola (original and zero sugar), Diet Coke, Fanta, Sprite, Dr Pepper and Lilt. The plastic packaging will be replaced by sustainably sourced and recyclable cardboard, which is already used for multipacks of 10 or more cans.
The firm stated the process will take around 18 months in the UK, where it sells more than 30 million packs each year. The wider initiative across Western Europe will remove around 4,000 tonnes of plastic from circulation across the region.
Leendert den Hollander, VP and General Manager at CCEP Great Britain, said: “We want to make it as easy as possible for consumers to recycle our packaging after they’ve enjoyed our drinks. All our cans are 100% recyclable but we know it is a challenge for consumers to recycle the plastic we use for our multipacks. By replacing shrink-wrap with cardboard, which is collected by virtually every household system in the country, we are eliminating a hard-to-recycle material from our supply chain.
“Changing all our canning lines over the next 18 months is a complex project. But we believe it is the right thing to do and we would encourage others in the sector to follow our lead.”
The move follows in the footsteps of other drinks brands ditching plastics from multipacks. Last year, Carlsberg unveiled its ‘Snap Pack’ system, where a multipack of cans are connected with small glue dots instead of plastic rings.
